Road safety vital for liveable Dhaka [Part-I] 

Dhaka was once spoken of, without irony, as a city of history, glory and beauty. It is difficult to remember that now. For much of last year, the capital ranked first or second in the world for air pollution on any given day, while by almost every measure of liveability, it continues to fall short.

Nowhere is this decline more starkly visible than on its roads, where footpath encroachment, unlicensed and unfit vehicles, undisciplined driving and weak enforcement combine to produce a death toll that a country not at war should have no reason to accept.

Road Transport, Railways and Shipping Minister Sheikh Robiul Alam MP does not dispute the scale of the problem. Speaking on August 24, he said road crashes claim close to 5,000 lives every year and set a target of halving both accidents and fatalities by 2030.

“A driver needs to know not just how to drive, but how to drive within the rules of the highway,” he said, noting that many drivers entered the profession as helpers, picking up bad habits before learning proper driving practices.

He said training and physical-fitness screening for drivers are now being organised under a dedicated road-safety project.

The government’s proposed measures include mandatory driver training, vehicle fitness checks, speed control, pedestrian-awareness campaigns and faster post-crash treatment. A composite new Safe Roads Act is expected by December 2027.

Markets that have grown along highway shoulders are to be relocated, diversions are being built at regional-road junctions and road-marking work is under way. Ambulances and motorcycle-ambulances will be positioned every 10 kilometres along highways, while separate trauma units are planned at roadside hospitals and dormant trauma centres are to be reactivated.

The Highway Police have already received 80 additional patrol motorcycles, although the minister admitted that its manpower “is lower than what is required” for the job.

LAW TO COVER PASSENGERS AND PEDESTRIANS
A draft Road Safety Act, 2026 proposes measures extending beyond drivers and vehicle owners. For the first time, passengers and pedestrians could also face fines of up to Tk 1,000 for offences such as reckless boarding, leaning out of vehicle windows, refusing to use footbridges or ignoring designated pedestrian crossings.

The draft would also bar children under six from riding pillion on motorcycles. Both riders and pillion passengers would be required to wear standard helmets.

It further proposes a National Road Safety Authority and stronger provisions for accident investigation, post-crash treatment and insurance.

PROMISES MADE BEFORE
But Bangladesh has heard similar assurances before.

The Road Transport Act, 2018 emerged after the extraordinary student movement that swept Dhaka and other parts of the country following the deaths of two students in a speeding bus crash.

“The 2018 safe-roads movement shook the moral foundations of society,” said Dr Samsul Haque, director of the Accident Research Institute at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).

“People believed order would finally return. The government’s agencies offered assurances too… But the police, the transport owners, the BRTA �" none of them kept their word.”

Elias Kanchan, founder-chairman of Nirapad Sarak Chai (We Want Safe Roads), is equally critical.

“Road accidents keep rising,” he said. “To bring them down, the law must be applied without mercy. But the transport sector always lobbies to have fines reduced �" as if a fine were a commodity whose price can simply be haggled down like rice or lentils.”

He also said Bangladesh still lacks a scientifically recognised system for counting road deaths, resulting in major differences between police figures and World Health Organisation estimates.

Supreme Court lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua said the cycle of tragedy and inaction has continued since the government “capitulated” to demands from transport owners and workers and diluted the 2018 law through repeated amendments.

“The law’s very purpose was to make roads safe and protect passengers,” he said. “That purpose found no place in it. The gap remains.”

ROADS BECOMING INCREASINGLY LAWLESS
While reforms have stalled, the problems on the roads have multiplied.
Battery-run auto-rickshaws �" largely unregistered and unlicensed �" are estimated by road-safety organisations to number between 6 million and 10 million nationwide, including 2 million to 3 million in Dhaka. They share lanes with faster vehicles, often stopping suddenly, swerving into traffic and disrupting signal queues.

Three-wheelers banned from national highways since 2015 also continue to operate. CNG auto-rickshaws, nosimons and tempus remain on roads despite repeated reinforcement of the ban by the High Court.

More alarming is the presence of 829 illegal double-decker sleeper coaches on the country’s highways. These vehicles are created by adding an unauthorised second storey to ordinary single-decker chassis.

Some standard 32-seat air-conditioned buses have reportedly been reconfigured to carry 45 passengers, increasing both the vehicle’s weight and the load on a chassis not designed for it and potentially making escape more difficult in a crash.

Advocate Huzzatul Islam Khan, who filed a High Court writ over the vehicles, said the BRTA has confirmed in writing that it never approved them and could take action against them with police support. Yet no such action has been taken.
At a hearing on August 20, the BRTA told the court that 829 such illegal coaches remained on the roads.

A GENERATION PAYS THE PRICE
Young people are bearing a significant share of the human cost. The Road Safety Foundation recorded 7,364 student deaths on Bangladesh’s roads between 2019 and June 2026, accounting for 15.11 percent of all road deaths during the period.

Of them, 3,328 were aged between five and 17 and were killed while walking to school or playing near their homes, often involving auto-rickshaws, motorcycles and goods vehicles. The remainder were college and university students aged 18 to 25.
In 2025 alone, the Foundation recorded 1,008 deaths of children under 17.

The Bangladesh Passengers’ Welfare Association recorded 3,026 road deaths nationwide between January and June this year. For the whole of 2025, it recorded 6,729 accidents, 9,111 deaths and 14,812 injuries �" increases of 6.94 percent, 5.79 percent and 14.87 percent respectively over 2024.

The BRTA’s own tally recorded 5,490 deaths in 2025, its highest annual figure.
The figures differ, but the message is unmistakable: the road-safety crisis is worsening while promises of reform continue to multiply.